Method and apparatus for providing access to information systems via e-mail
Invention provides a method for an e-mail based interface to function as a single common access point for requesting, receiving, publishing, accessing and sharing various data from multiple, remote information systems. The invention becomes akin to a human relay operator in the loop which is transparent to the user. By relaying the e-mail chain, the invention performs multiple functions based on the originating request, and reply as a human would.
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This patent application claims the priority benefit of the filing date of a provisional application Ser. No. 60/832,008, filed in the United States Patent and Trademark Office on Jul. 6, 2006.
STATEMENT OF GOVERNMENT INTERESTThe invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government for governmental purposes without the payment of any royalty thereon.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONElectronic mail or “E-mail” is a store and forward method of sending and receiving messages over an electronic communication system, and is typically perceived as an infrastructure connecting people through a human interface means at both ends. E-mail messages may contain text, files, and even images. But what if an e-mail user desired to “pull” rather than “push” information from another computer?
The existing e-mail infrastructure provides a foundation to expand upon beyond the traditional uses of e-mail systems. Applying automation and intelligence that would allow e-mail messages to contain data opposed to just message text, is an open and challenging problem in support of data sharing and information collection needs which the prior art has not adequately addressed.
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In light of the aforementioned deficiencies in the prior art, it would therefore be desirable to transform the data into a format that would appear legible in an e-mail message. Lastly, there are no specific ways to upload or submit information directly into specific sources. It would be desirable to not only request information from a particular source, but to contribute as well. To date, the prior art has not addressed this need in this manner.
OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONOne object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for an e-mail based interface which provides a single common access point using e-mail, to request, receive, publish, share, and access data from a plurality of information system types.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for small devices such as cell phones, to publish or subscribe to various information systems without the need to install complex systems.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for providing access to multiple information systems employing a means that can be delivered, installed, or run independently of an e-mail application itself.
The invention disclosed herein provides a method and apparatus for delivering data using e-mail. In particular, this invention becomes an operator in an e-mail loop, whereas the messages are sent from human to machine, then machine back to human. By relaying the e-mail chain, the system can perform multiple functions based on the originating request, and reply as a human would. An e-mail can be sent asking for a particular piece of information, for example, weather. The invention receives this request, makes the necessary connections and retrieves the requested information. The invention will then respond to the e-mail, from the machine back to the human with, in this example, the weather forecast. From the human perspective, the message in reply appears as if it had come from another human.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, an independent e-mail server is installed on a machine. This machine also connects to other machines using Application Programmers Interfaces, or API's comprised from the following steps: An e-mail is sent to the mail server. The message is then passed to another program which identifies the message headers. Based on the request, the program makes the corresponding connections where the data is located, retrieves the information, and wraps the results into an outgoing e-mail message. The message is then sent back to the originating requestor.
According to a feature of the present invention, a method is provided to access multiple information systems using electronic forms. Typical e-mail transfers contain standard headers such as To, From, Subject, etc. When custom forms are introduced, the field names, or header fields on the form are necessarily generated by the programmer. Since most e-mail systems will not understand information beyond the standard header information, there is no way to guarantee the additional data will be delivered with the e-mail. Moreover, outside the native e-mail environment, most scripting languages used in the forms are stripped. This results in any variable, or calculations will be lost. Therefore, to uniquely guarantee the additional fields are delivered with the e-mail, the present invention provides for additional fields that are created and are modulated with the standard headers. When the message is received, the headers are again parsed, and formatted back into an understandable message body. This modulation and demodulation provided by the present invention is completely transparent to the user.
Advantages And New Features Of The Present Invention
In contrast to the way information has been accessed and delivered in the past, the present invention becomes the equivalent of an operator in the loop. In other words, the translation that takes place is also a transformation of the data. Employing the present invention's operator in the loop method allows a user to perform a search without first returning the webpage, or search engine. For example, if a user wanted to perform an internet search but did not have access to the internet, an e-mail can be sent directly to the present invention with the desired search terms contained in the message body. The present invention takes the message body, and passes search terms in accordance with the specified request as defined in the subject line of the e-mail, in this case, an internet search. The results are then formatted and returned within an understandable message body, as opposed to just a text representation of the webpage.
The advantage of this relay/proxy method of accessing the internet is that the request does not go out directly to the source. Instead, the request is sent to another machine, which makes the actual request and replies back. The advantage of such a process allows the users of the system to configure how/where the data will be searched, and how the results will be displayed.
For example, suppose that deployed troops during wartime required access to the right information, at the right time. Concurrently, this information would need to be shared and stored. Deploying troops each with a laptop computer with the sole purpose of being able to access and publish data is not feasible due to the high cost, weight, shortened battery life, and the size of these devices. However, cellular phone technology supports internet and e-mail access. These devices are much smaller, less expensive, and are already established in the wartime environment. In this fashion, the present invention would be capable of assisting the accessing and publishing information in a way that would provide a large benefit for our military.
This invention allows simple e-mail devices to retrieve, compile and publish data from multiple, remote information systems.
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If it is determined 230 that the request is not a process, but rather an e-mail, or e-mail form that has been demodulated, the next step is to run the request. The functionality of the invention is based on the request and the available sources and applications that are set up with it. Meaning, if a weather system provides an API to allow a user to download a weather forecast by zip code, and the invention can connect to that API, then the weather forecast can be delivered in an e-mail message based on the API connection 250. At this point the invention can, through connection to the API 250 connect up to any system or database that allows external access by the query/request 260 to retrieve the information. The databases and services (see 100,
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While the present invention has been described in reference to specific embodiments, in light of the foregoing, it should be understood that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings is intended to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense and that various modifications and variations of the invention may be constructed without departing from the scope of the invention defined by the following claims. Thus, other possible variations and modifications should be appreciated.
Claims
1. Method for information retrieval via electronic mail, comprising the steps of:
- creating an electronic information retrieval request;
- forwarding said retrieval request as an e-mail to a domain-specific mail server;
- parsing the incoming header and message body of said e-mail;
- storing said parsed incoming header information as a temporary variable;
- building an outgoing header from said stored parsed incoming header;
- determining whether said electronic information retrieval request originated as an e-mail, an e-mail electronic form, or a process e-mail;
- IF it is determined that said electronic information retrieval request originated as an e-mailed electronic form, THEN demodulating subject line corresponding to each field in said electronic form;
- OTHERWISE, IF it is determined that said electronic information retrieval request originated as a process request, THEN updating configuration; updating settings; and processing additional requests; OTHERWISE,
- making connections to APIs corresponding to particular databases to be searched;
- accessing a plurality of databases with said retrieval request;
- receiving returned results;
- building an outbound electronic message containing said returned results in an interpretable format;
- verifying the e-mail address and header of said outbound electronic message;
- authenticating said verified outbound electronic message;
- sending said verified outbound electronic message;
- maintaining an audit trail of said outbound electronic message being delivered to said verified e-mail address; and
- receiving said returned results within the body of said outbound electronic message.
2. In an information system comprising a plurality of local and remote databases and user workstations being electronically interconnected through a network with mail servers, an apparatus, being disposed between said network and said severs, for providing information retrieval from said local and remote databases via electronic mail to and from said user workstations, further comprising:
- a computer processor;
- a software program comprising instructions, stored on a computer-readable media, wherein said instructions, when executed by said computer processor, implement means to: create an electronic information retrieval request; forward said retrieval request as an e-mail to a domain-specific mail server; parse the incoming header and message body of said e-mail; store said parsed incoming header information as a temporary variable; build an outgoing header from said stored parsed incoming header; determine whether said electronic information retrieval request originated as an e-mail, an e-mail electronic form, or a process e-mail; IF it is determined that said electronic information retrieval request originated as an e-mailed electronic form, THEN demodulate subject line corresponding to each field in said electronic form; OTHERWISE, IF it is determined that said electronic information retrieval request originated as a process request, THEN update configuration; update settings; and process additional requests; OTHERWISE, make connections to APIs corresponding to particular databases to be searched; access a plurality of databases with said retrieval request; receive returned results; build an outbound electronic message containing said returned results in an interpretable format; verify the e-mail address and header of said outbound electronic message; authenticate said verified outbound electronic message; send said verified outbound electronic message; maintain an audit trail of said outbound electronic message being delivered to said verified e-mail address; and receive said returned results within the body of said outbound electronic message.
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Type: Grant
Filed: Jun 26, 2007
Date of Patent: Apr 27, 2010
Patent Publication Number: 20090292670
Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force (Washington, DC)
Inventor: Michael J. Manno (Rome, NY)
Primary Examiner: Shahid A Alam
Attorney: Joseph A. Mancini
Application Number: 11/879,522
International Classification: G06F 17/30 (20060101);